Hardball   |  November 21, 2012

Matthews: Sen. John Kerry would be the best pick for Secretary of State

Chris Matthews shares his thoughts on why Sen. John Kerry would be the best pick for Secretary of State

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> let me finish with this tonight. i've long believed that the best decision of barack obama 's presidency came before he even took office. it was naming hillary clinton , his secretary of state. it did something magical, uniting the democratic party , setting a hopeful course for political maturity, giving not just the president but the country a top drawer , a top diplomat to face the word. now it's up to president obama to do it again. he's won a second term and he needs to make it great. naming john kerry fits that bill. picking susan rice would be good. picking kerry would be better. the secretary of state stands alone had history, holding the most stature but for the president himself. ker are ry won 252 electoral votes against the sitting chief executive, a war time president at that. a leading critic of the war latinoer, a five-time sort the heavyweight that obama picked the first time. i say this even as i detest the lynch mob that's thrown itself together for ambassador susan rice . they are precisely the same as those used in the swift voting to keep john kerry from the presidency. they attack her for her early explanation of the horror of benghazi when the real complaint is something that she had nothing to do about, the death of our ambassador chris stevens . the real complaint was his opposition to the vietnam war on his return. swift voting is now sadly a practiced art. it's character assassination with a head fake. for president obama , the challenge for this week is to make the right pick for the country, not react one way or another to the jack kells out there. he had the clear head to do it before when picking hillary